Yoshi Shinjo
LG Bamboo Spirit Folk Lama 12 / Henshin Mystic 2 HP: 134 (16 HD) Init: +7 Speed: 30 feet Space/Reach: 5 feet AC: 28 BAB: +8/+3 Attack: Unarmed Attack (2d6+2 20/x2) Abilities: STR 14, DEX 16, CON 16, INT 14, WIS 20, CHA 14 Saves: Fort +13, Ref +13, Will +15 (+17 vs. Enchantments) Skills: Concentration +8, Diplomacy +14, Escape Artist +6, Heal +18, Knowledge (Local) +6, Knowledge (Religion) +18, Knowledge (Arcana) +8, Listen +10, Move Silently +6, Perform (Kabuki) +2, Sense Motive +15, Spellcraft +6, Spot +10, Survival +7, Swim +3, Tumble +5 Languages: Shou Common Feats: Ki Focus, Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty, Skill Focus (Knowledge Religion), Greater Ki Power Possessions: Patron: The Path of Enlightenment Features: Bamboo Spirit Folk Qualities Unarmed Strike (Ex): Yoshi is highly training in fighting unarmed, giving him a considerable advantages when doing so. He gains the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. AC Bonus (Ex): Yoshi is highly trained at dodging blows and has a sixth sense that lets him/her avoid even unanticipated attacks. When unarmored and unencumbered, Yoshi adds her Wisdom bonus to his Armor Class. Yoshi loses this bonus when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load. Ki Power (Ex): Yoshi has learned to harness his inner Ki and gains the Ki Power feat as a bonus feat. Purity of Body (Ex): Yoshi has control over his body’s immune system. He is immune to all diseases except for supernatural and magical diseases. Still Mind (Ex): Yoshi gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the enchantment school. Purity of Body (Ex): Yoshi is immune to all diseases, except for supernatural and magical diseases. Riddle of Awareness (Sp): Yoshi can use scrying as a spell-like ability once per day, with a caster level of 2. He must enter into a meditative trance for the entire casting time and duration, but it requires no material components or focus items. Blind-Fight: Yoshi gains the Blind-Fight feat as a bonus feat. Diamond Body (Su): Yoshi is immune to poisons of all kinds. Spellcasting Lama Spells Prepared (CL 12): 6 / 4+2 / 4+1 / 3+1 / 3+1 / 2+1 Ki Points: 110 Combat/Tactics: Yoshi is a very peaceful individual, and it takes a lot of baiting to lure him into physical combat. When he is involved in combat, he is a fearsome warrior, mixing the power of his Lama magic with his ample Ki control abilities. Friends/Allies: As a member of the Henshin Mystics, Yoshi knows many members of the order, and is friendly with many. As a member of Clan Shinjo, Yoshi is related to many of the nobles in Kai Qing, and through his membership of Clan Shinjo, he knows of many other nobles, both in Kai Qing, and in other places within the Shou Empire. Foes/Enemies: Yoshi has very few enemies. As a peaceful monk, there are no individuals who want him, specifically, dead. Many other disagree with his philosophies, but they do not hold malice when they do so. Appearance: Yoshi, for all intents and purposes, looks like a Human. His skin is paler than most, however, and his is what gives away his spirit heritage. He has brown eyes and black hair that he ties into a small topknot. Yoshi wears ceremonial brown robes, white leggings, and brown sandals of the Henshin Monks. He regularly wears a large bamboo peasant’s hat as well. Personality: Yoshi Shinjo is quiet. He prefers peace and quiet to hustle and bustle. Yoshi’s idea of a good time is relaxing on the bank of a pond or river, and eating with a small group of friends and family. Yoshi sees the best in all people, and does his best to act the same way. History: Yoshi Shinjo was born in Kai Qing in the year 1039. Like his sister, Yoshi’s mother was Kaori Shinjo, and his father was Horishito, a Forest Spirit. Yoshi was a Spirit Folk, a half-Human, half-Spirit combination, and, like his sister’s birth, was a cause for celebration. Growing up, Yoshi was lavishly gifted with all sorts of amenities. Clan Shinjo was one of the ruling noble families of Kai Qing, so material wealth was spent freely. The elders of Clan Shinjo had another reason for lavishing young Yoshi in wealth. Being as that he was the eldest son of the eldest daughter of Lord Shinjo, Yoshi was in line to inherit the rule of the family, when his grandfather died. One aspect that Yoshi excelled in was learning. Initially, Yoshi had a single tutor, but as he craved more and more knowledge, he was given more and more teachers, who could share with him a wider breadth of subjects. At one point, young Yoshi, who was in his teenage years, had as many as eight tutors. As he matured into a man, Yoshi grew to appreciate religion more and more. As a child, he had been taught the basics of the Celestial Bureaucracy, and complied to the their tenets more out of habit, and deference to his elders than out of actual belief. Now, a man, he truly came to believe in the teachings that his tutors had instilled upon him, supposedly from the Celestial Emperor himself. Okuro Yakimoto, one of Yoshi’s closest friends, changed his life during what seemed like an ordinary night in which the two were returning from a kabuki practice session, an art that both men were learning. At this point, Yoshi was 23, and his grandfather’s health was beginning to fail. Yoshi and Okuro were running late, so neither bothered to remove their makeup or costumes as they walked the streets of Kai Qing back to their respective homes. A peasant who was heavily inebriated at the time approached the two, and propositioned them for sex, thinking that they were geisha. Okuro, incensed that his masculinity and very honor had been disgraced, drew a dagger and stabbed the peasant in the stomach, and the quickly slashed him across the throat. The doomed peasant quickly staggered back and fell, but died after a few weak attempts at a crawling escape. While Yoshi was excited, scared, and dismayed over what had happened, his friend seemed to be more aggravated than anything else. When Yoshi inquired why he had killed a man, Okuro responded that the peasant had insulted the honor of a nobleman, and that his life was forfeit. When he mentioned the possibility of being in trouble with the authorities, Okuro responded that, because of their status, the life of one drunk peasant did not matter. Returning back to Shinjo manor, he had much to contemplate. According to the tenets of the Celestial Emperor, life was the most precious thing there was, and all life was to be respected. But, at the same time, those who disrespected the honor of others were expected to forfeit their lives. Sadly, Yoshi concluded that the tenets set by the Celestial Emperor were contradictory in nature. Both life and honor could not be the most important gifts that the Celestial Emperor left to his people. Yoshi, all at once, went from doubting his faith, to knowing that his faith was incorrect. The very next day, Yoshi informed his family members that he was leaving Kai Qing, abandoning his namesake, and was becoming a Henshin ascetic. In the Shou Empire, the Henshin were a monastic order that followed a philosophy of their own devising, known as the Path of Enlightenment. According to their philosophy, concepts such as good, evil, law, and chaos are simply artificial constructs of the mortal world. In truth, the universe is empty of such labels, and it is only when one truly frees himself from thinking in such ‘black and white’ terms does he discover that the universe is in fact empty- and one’s to shape as they wish. To say that his family was dismayed, at first, is an understatement. His mother had thought he had gone temporarily insane, and ordered him not to leave his room. It was only though the help of his sister, Mee-Yon, that Yoshi was able to leave the compound, and leave his old life behind, starting anew, following the ascetic philosophy of the Henshin. In doing so, Yoshi would be throwing away nearly everything. He was in line to inherit the title of Lord of Clan Shinjo from his grandfather, who was slowly dying. Bing, his cousin, would inherit the title and the prestige that went with it, by Yoshi leaving. But, this did not sway him, as the young man was determined to learn the way of the Path of Enlightenment. Yoshi made the long pilgrimage to the Shang Zhi Temple in the northern Khazihari Mountains, where the Path of the Enlightenment had originated. For the next 72 years, Yoshi would live in the Shang Zhi Temple, learning the tenets of the Path of Enlightenment. He would see Humans born, live, and die, during the course of his studies at the temple, a blessing and a curse of his Spirit heritage. In 1134, Yoshi Shinjo left the Shang Zhi Temple, having learned all there was to learn about the Path of Enlightenment. He returned to Kai Qing, finding it, in some respects, both the same and very different than it was when he left almost three-quarters of a century before. Members of the Shinjo family had died, and new members of the Shinjo family had aged. His cousin, Bing, had died, and his son, Kagato, was now the Lord of Clan Shinjo. The Shinjo’s, bound by tradition that Yoshi no longer applied to his life, greeted Yoshi and provided him with a place to live. In Yoshi, they were not gaining honor and prestige, but neither was their name being sullied and dishonored. Yoshi, being a Henshin ascetic, simply was. He transcended the scale that honor was measured. Yoshi Shinjo spends his days in Kai Qing, meditating, and aiding those around the city in any way he can. He regularly hands out sweets to children, and performs one-man kabuki shows for passerbies in the streets, and blessing strangers in the street. He sometimes stays in his prepared quarters in Shinjo Manor, but spends most of his nights sleeping in the streets of Kai Qing. Motivations and Goals: Yoshi seeks to ultimatley understand the nature of reality, and gain enlightenment. He does this through meditation, and other mystic rituals. Because he is a good natured person, when he is not meditating, he can be found all around Kai Qing, performing various duties to help the people of the city